


Birthday Bunny

by Chelidona (Hobbity)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Baby Durins, Easter - sort of, Fili and Kili's birthday tradition, Gen, Kid Fic, ficlet really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 15:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10642284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbity/pseuds/Chelidona
Summary: Fili and Kili were both born during the equinox, if five years apart. When Fíli was a little toddler, Bofur, the cheerful head miner who also crafted toys and was thus a firm favourite of all dwarflings, had told him about he spring equinox tradition the men of the blue mountains had: a spring bunny delivering bright eggs and sweetmeats into beautiful nests the children built out moss and leaves. When the young prince, barely able to talk, had scrunched his face and asked Thorin, who was with him, if the ekkinok wasn’t his birthday, Bofur had brightly said that he was sure the spring bunny was actually a special bunny to deliver presents to the young prince of Durin’s line, and just left some treats for other children too.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleLightLittleFire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLightLittleFire/gifts).



> A gift for littlelightlittlefire who told me about the Birthday Bunny ;) It was written in haste, in between family stuff, but I hope you enjoy it a little anyway :)

“All right, that should do it.”

Fíli stepped back to admire his handiwork. Their nest for the birthday bunny was a work of art, befitting Durin princes. 

5 years ago, the year before he died, their father had carved the side of a boulder near the entrance to Thorin’s halls to make a niche for the nest his sons built every year. It was big enough to contain the bronze metal bowl Fíli had hammered the previous year to form the foundation. Kíli had stuffed the bowl with moss; bunnies loved moss, or so the dwarves thought. The moss was sprinkled with pretty stones they had collected and which Fíli had polished with some help from Kíli. 

Kíli was only 12 now, barely old enough to craft, but making up for it with his enthusiasm.

They had woven a roof, of sort, with some old copper wire and twigs, decked with leaves.

Kíli sprinkled some more petals onto the roof.

“You think the birthday bunny is going to like it?” he asked his big brother with all the seriousness of a 12year old. Fíli patted his head.

“It’s going to love it. Do you have the carrot?”

Kíli pulled the vegetable out of his shirt.

“It won’t mind we stole the carrot from Amad, right?”

He worried his lower lip, looking from the carrot to his brother.

“No,” Fíli assured him while he took the carrot. “It will be happy that we thought of providing some food. Bunnies love food.”

“And then it will leave us presents,” Kíli said happily.

“Right.” Fíli stuck out his tongue as he considered where to put the carrot. It couldn’t be in the open, Amad and Uncle would come soon to see how they did and make them go back inside; it was a small miracle they had let the dwarflings alone long enough to built the nest on their own. But it needed to be in a place where the bunny would notice it. But … he seemed to remember that bunnies had a good sense of smell.

Or so Balin had told him, when he had fired questions about bunnies at his tutor. At first, Balin had tried to convince him that there was no such thing as a Birthday Bunny. Ridiculous.

Fili and Kili were both born during the equinox, if five years apart. When Fíli was a little toddler, Bofur, the cheerful head miner who also crafted toys and was thus a firm favourite of all dwarflings, had told him about the spring equinox tradition the men of the blue mountains had: a spring bunny delivering bright eggs and sweetmeats into beautiful nests the children built out moss and leaves. When the young prince, barely able to talk, had scrunched his face and asked his father, if the ekkinok wasn’t his birthday, Bofur had brightly said that he was sure the spring bunny was actually a special bunny to deliver presents to the young prince of Durin’s line, and just left some treats for other children too.

That idea had snowballed.

Soon, dwarflings clamoured that they needed to built nests too for Prince Fíli’s birthday bunny, that honour shouldn’t be left to the children of men.

And of course then Prince Fíli insisted on building a nest too to receive the presents for his very important fifth birthday. Five was a whole hand, so it was important. At least that was how the adults interpreted his babbling.

Thorin was appalled. Dis was very amused and very pregnant, so she told her brother and her husband to get out of her sight and build a nest with Fíli instead of hovering around her waiting for her to pop out another baby.

When Kíli was born two days later Fíli had decided he was a late present by the Birthday Bunny. 

Everyone was too happy that Fíli immediately took to his baby brother to contradict him. It wasn’t uncommon for dwarflings to be fiercely jealous of their younger siblings; dwarves were overall slow to accept change, and their toddlers were no exception. Fíli wasn’t jealous when his parents paid attention to Fíli because he felt neglected; no, he was irate when they hogged too much of Kíli’s time, because Fíli wanted to have his brother for himself!

The next year, Dis had to carry her baby through the forest, while Fíli foraged moss, leaves and beautiful stones, holding them all up for Kíli’s approval; Kíli mainly approved by trying to eat everything, which charmed Fíli’s six year old self and concerned Dis. The tradition was allowed to evolve; some traditional dwarves still forbade their children to built nests, ephemeral things out of natural materials, how undwarfish, but the majority had embraced the opportunity to introduce their toddlers to crafting at an early age, using free materials, and older dwarflings were encouraged to add some of their metalwork or stone carvings to the nests.

Fíli was now hiding the carrot behind a rough soapstone statue that approximated a rabbit; Kíli’s first stonework. And not a moment too late, the heavy footsteps of Thorin and Dis were approaching.

Dis ooed and awwed over the nest, letting Kíli show her all the features, including the traps they had for bad animals or children who tried to sneak to the nest. Thorin inspected them with a frown, and informed his nephews that while their idea was good and befitting the princes as future hunters and warriors, Fíli would spend the next year focusing on learning how to construct traps and went on explaining why their traps wouldn’t work. Fíli listened with great interest, Kíli soon lost focus and began to rearrange the stones again.

The next morning, they ran down the path again, followed by their mother. And as every year, the found the nest filled to the brim with colourful eggs, sweetmeats, and small presents. 

Kíli squealed when he inspected the little slingshot, he liked throwing things and had a terrifyingly good aim for a small child.

Fíli found knives and ropes, to fashion traps, as Thorin explained. Fíli was immediately in love with the knives, and was about to run off into the forest to find some suitable twigs to carve, but his mother stopped him. They had to go back home, to receive presents from their friends, not only the Birthday Bunny.

On their way back, their mother suggested that next year maybe he could carve a carrot flute for the Birthday bunny with his new knife. She had heard the bunny liked flutes.

“Just like Bofur!” Fíli exclaimed, too happy about his new knife to register that his mother knew about the stolen carrot. “He can show me how!”

“I am sure he will, my little jewel.”


End file.
